Secret Partner In Crime
by KevIsTehAwesomeness
Summary: Splintered across The Doctor's timestream, Clara finds herself at Adipose Industries. How does this echo save The Doctor? Will she die once again?
1. The New Life

Clara opened her eyes, a bit frightened. She'd just been thrown back into a spinny chair. She gave a small gasp. She couldn't remember much, just that she had just saved The Doctor. Again. And died. Again. That's when her surroundings came to her. She heard a whole bunch of phones ringing and looked around, realising where she was. She was in a call centre, in a tiny cubicle. She turned her head back to the front of her. Acomputer screen, with some kind of spreadsheet opened up. Atop the spreadsheet it read 'ADIPOSE INDUSTRIES'. Huh. Wonder what that is, she thought to herself. She looked at a pencil cup that was sitting next to the computer. There was some kind of gold necklace sitting in it. Clara picked it up, giving it a strange look. Attached to the end was some oval thing. Then she heard it.

"John Smith, Health and Safety, don't mind me" It said.

Although she didn't remember much, Clara recognised that voice. And that fake name. It was him. The Doctor. His tenth incarnation, if she was right. She stood up, glancing over her stall to see if she could see him. But she couldn't, no matter how hard she looked. She sat back down. She could have sworn she'd heard his voice.

"Where's the printer?"

She'd heard it again. So up she popped, looking again. But no sign of him. Sitting back down, she sighed. Maybe it's a voice box she's hearing.

"That's the printer there?"

She'd heard it again. Wrinkling her eyebrow, she got up once more, scanning the room...And still no sign of him. Weird. She sat back down and stared at her screen. Am I going mad? I mean, I am ten incarnations in.

"Has it got paper?"

There it was again. Clara jolted up from her chair faster than before, and scanned the room more thoroughly. And yet still didn't see him. She sat back down, giving a huff. This is riduclous. He's clearly here, but she needs to find him in order to save him. At that moment, a woman interrupted her thoughts.

"Excuse me, everyone, if I could have your attention" she said.

Clara wheeled her chair up to the entrance of her stall, peeking around the corner at the woman slightly. She was a tall woman in a suit, she had glasses and neat blonde hair tied in a bun. Standing behind her were two guards. Clara gulped a bit, scooting further back into her stall, but still eyeing the woman as she spoke.

"On average, you're each selling forty Adipose packs per day. It's not enough. I want one hundred sales per person per day. And if not, you'll be replaced. Because if anyone's good in trimming the fat, it's me. Now. Back to it"

Clara's eyes widened at this statement as she watched the woman leave and scooted back in front of her computer. A hundred sales a day. That's expecting too much. Just who is that woman? And what kind of place is this Adipose Industries? She eyed the golden necklace in the pencil holder. The sound of The Doctor's voice once again cut her thoughts off.

"Oh, what's that?" she heard him ask someone.

Clara raised an eyebrow at the tone of his voice, scooting closer to her computer screen, and the direction The Doctor's voice was coming from.

"My telephone number" she heard a woman say as she listened to the conversation.

"What for?" she heard The Doctor ask.

"Health and Safety," she heard the woman say, "You be Health, I'll be Safety"

Clara gave a giggle-snort at that, but quickly covered it up with a cough, in hopes no one heard her as she kept eavesdropping.

"Ah, ah, but that contravenes, er..Paragraph 5, subsection C. Sorry" she heard The Doctor say.

This caused Clara to give a sly grin. That was so like The Doctor. Talking his way out of flirting. Very awkwardly, she might add. She heard someone get off their chair from that direction, and moved back in front of her computer screen, eyeing the printer, which was just steps away from her stall, out of the corner of her eye. Then she saw it. That pinstripe suit. She wheeled her chair to the exit of her stall as fast as she could, so she could grab his attention.

"Doc-" she started, but he'd already began to walk back to whatever stall he'd been occupying.

Clara gave a frown and pressed her ear to the wall of her stall like before.

"Me again," she heard The Doctor say, "It doesn't seem to have printed. Mind reprinting it for me?"

So the printer wasn't working. No biggie, she could fix that. She wheeled back over to her computer screen, hacked around in it's Settings, and printed the blank spreadhseet that was on her screen. Getting up, Clara began to walk over to the printer. And that's when she saw it. Through all her lives, there was only two things she knew. She had to save The Doctor, and what the Great Intelligence looked like in each life. And there he was, same face as when they jumped into the timestream, only in a decked out suit. And still with his cane. He was standing at the side of the printer. Clara noticed he'd had his hand in the output of the machine, and was watching the tray with an evil grin on his face. She ran up to the printer, and placed her hand atop his, which startled him a bit. The Great Intelligence looked up at her.

"I believe that's my page" Clara told him with a smile, tilting her head as she moved his hand out of the tray.

"You" He said monotonely.

Clara just continued smiling at him. He quickly swiped his hand out of her grasp, and swooped around the corner. Well, now she knew she was in the right place. She grabbed her printout from the tray and looked at it. Same blank spreadsheet that was on her screen, printed out perfectly. Nothing wrong with the printer. So The Doctor should have gotten his page. She felt a swish of air by her side, and looked up, noticing that The Doctor was heading away from the stalls. Clara rolled her eyes. Once again, her thoughts had consumed her, and she missed her opportunity to talk to him. One thing was for sure, though. She knew she had to follow him. Throwing her blank sheet in the small trashcan beside the printer, she ran in the same direction The Doctor was going.


	2. Following The Doctor

Clara followed The Doctor as he ran out of the building down the roads. He reached a house and entered it's front garden, approaching the door. Clara knew she couldn't approach him like this, so she ran to the side of the house's fenceline, hiding, and listening. She heard The Doctor ring the doorbell. And then heard the door creak open.

"Mister Roger Davey?" she heard The Doctor ask the person, "I'm calling on behalf of Adipose Industries, just need to ask you a few questions"

She heard the door shut and took a peek around the corner from her hiding spot. Seeing The Doctor had probably gone inside, she crept over the fence and into the garden, sneaking near a window, and looking through it, but so as not to be seen. She saw The Doctor, and saw another man sitting on a couch. That must be Roger Davey. Being so far, she couldn't make out words, but could see The Doctor was involved in a deep conversation with Roger. But she could tell it was serious. She knew how to tell The Doctor's serious voice without even hearing it. His postures and actionss gave everything away. Then she noticed Roger get up and lead The Doctor to the front door. Clara quickly snuck back around to the other side of the house, so she could hear the discussion. She peeked around the corner, and saw both Roger and The Doctor were looking at the cat flap at the bottom of the door. Clara wondered why a cat flap was so intriguing to The Doctor. Then again, she thought, her Doctor did act like a cat at times.

"It was here when I bought the house," Roger was saying,"I've never bothered with it, really. I'm not a cat person"

"No, I've met cat people," The Doctor said, "You're nothing like them"

Clara scrunched up her face at this statement. You're one to talk, she thought to herself.

"Is that what it is, though?" Roger asked, "Cats getting inside the house?"

"Well," The Doctor said, "Thing about cat flaps is, they don't just let things in, they let things out aswell"

"Like what?" Roger asked him.

"The fat just walks away" The Doctor simply stated.

Clara could have sworn that sentence was familiar to her. As if she'd heard it somewhere, or read it somewhere. That's it. That's where she saw it. Her spreadsheet. She'd been staring at it for ages, it makes sense it'd be embedded in her mind. It was underneath the title of 'ADIPOSE INDUSTRIES'. 'The fat just walks away'. It must be their slogan. A beeping noise interrupted her thinking, and she was drawn back to reality. The Doctor had some kind of gadget in his hand, and he was looking at it, with a big grin on his face.

"Oh. Got to go," he said to Roger, "Sorry"

And with that, he'd rushed off down the street. Clara rolled her eyes with a sigh. Once Roger had gone back inside, Clara chased after The Doctor. Running after him, she tries to call out to him, but he's too far ahead. She sees him hit the gadget a few times, and then continue running. Noticing some bright lights ahead of them, her eyes widen.

She rushed to The Doctor's aide, grabbing him and pulling him out of the van's way, causing her to fall on her bottom. She looked up as the van quickly drove past them, and noticed The Great Intelligence was a passenger. Her gaze followed the direction of the van with a glare. The Doctor's gadget beeped louder than before and pointed in the direction of the van. At that, The Doctor rushed off after the van.

"Seriously?!" Clara asked nobody in particular, as she got up, brushing herself off quickly and chasing after The Doctor once again.

After chasing him for several blocks, she followed him down an alleyway, but lost him in it. She sighed. All that hassle for nothing, she thought. Tomorrow, then, she told herself as she walked further down the alleyway, somehow knowing where she lived next day, as she was nearing the end of the alleyway she'd chased The Doctor down the previous night,, she heard an engine noise. This widened her eyes. For this engine noise was a familiar engine noise. She stood still, waiting for what was to come. And it came. There it was, materialising just feet away from her. The TARDIS. She gave a huge grin. She'd been through all nine and a half of his lives, and she never thought she'd still be excited to see that old cow. Admittedly, it wasn't the current one, but right now, just seeing that blue box gave her faith. Just then, she heard footsteps, and jolted back to reality, noticing The Doctor was running out of the alleyway ahead of her. She rolled her eyes and once again, began chasing The Doctor. She sees The Doctor enter the building via a back exit, and runs to it. Hands on the handle, she pushes it. But it's locked. She sighed. Of course. He's sneaking in. He sonicked the thing. Looking around the door, Clara noticed a small keycard scanner. Feeling around her pockets, she felt a laminated card and pulled it out, giving it a glance. The Adipose Industries logo was at the top, followed by a name and position.

'CLARE OSWIN: TRAINEE"

So that was her name this time around. She scanned the card, which unlocked the door. Rushing inside to catch up with The Doctor, she shoved the card back in her pocket. She noticed The Doctor dive into a storage room as she followed him. She heard the sonic's usual buzz, and gave a quizzical look. Did he just lock himelf in there? She wondered what for. But before she could think of a reason, a guard got her attention.

"Miss Oswin," he said as she turned around to face him,"You should be upstairs"

"Yes, right," Clara said, "Of course"

And with that, Clara dashed upstairs and into the room with all the cubicles, taking a seat at the one she occupied earlier. Sitting there, she pretended to be making sales, but in reality thinking about why on Earth The Doctor locked himself in a storage room. Then it came to her. He was planning to sneak in after closing time. Well, that was it then. She was going to do the same thing. Eyeing the clock on her computer screen as she fake-worked, she watched as it went from 9.30 to 5.50. Ten minutes to close. She got up off her chair and looked around, making sure no one was looking at her. Leaving the room, she snuck back down to where the storage room was. She could easily grab his attention now. All she had to do was stand outside the door. Which she did, with a great big smile on her face. Her smile quickly faded as she heard footsteps approaching her. She darted her eyes around for a hiding space, and spotted a trashcan just around the corner. She rushed around there, bending down and hiding behind it. The footsteps kept approaching and she watched as a guard kept walking down the hallway. Her gaze following the guard, she wondered if that could have been The Great Intelligence. But she brushed her thoughts off once she heard the storage room door open with the sound of the sonic. Peeking around the corner, she noticed that The Doctor was already rushing ahead of her upstairs. Getting up, Clara followed slightly behind him. She followed all the way up the stairs to the plant room and out onto the roof, where The Doctor climbs into the window cleaner's cradle. What is he doing? Clara thought to herself, running to the edge of the building as The Doctor lowered himself down, stopping halfway. Taking a look over the edge, Clara stared down at him, but realised it was too far down to shout at him. And noticed he'd ducked down and had pulled out a stethoscope and had his ear to the wall. He stayed in this position for a few minutes before he began...she didn't know what he was doing. It looked like he was playing charades with someone through the window. But that wasn't possible. There was no one else in the building besides them two. Was there? Then she saw him point his sonic at the window, and then felt the cradle's cords start to come up, which made her stumble backwards, behind the ventilation duct. Grabbing onto the side of it, Clara steadied herself as she heard footsteps, looking around the corner and noticing The Doctor run back inside. Brushing herself off, she chased after him down the stairs, but stopped in her tracks when she saw he'd bumped into a red-haired woman in a suit.

"Oh my God, I don't believe it," The woman said, "You've even got the same suit! Don't you ever change?!"

Clara had to put a hand in her mouth to stop her from giggling at that. Whoever this was, she liked her.

"Yeah, thanks, Donna, not right now" The Doctor said.

Donna. Of course. The Doctor had told Clara about her. She had no time to reminisce as she saw the guards were approaching the three of them. She quickly ran back up the stairs, and outside onto the roof.

"Just like old times!" she heard The Doctor tell Donna from behind her as she heard their footsteps behind her.

Once she got onto the roof, Clara ran back behind the ventilation, making sure she was unseeable, but peeping out of the corner. She saw The Doctor and Donna enter the rooftop.

"Because I thought," Donna was saying as The Doctor soniced the door, "How do you find The Doctor? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then he'll turn up. So I looked everywhere,You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet he's connected. Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax"

Clara smiled at this ramble. She knew the feeling. Once you've experienced life with The Doctor, you never want to give it up. No matter how much danger you get in. Half of that's the reason she was here in the first place. If there was any better time to introduce herself, it was now. She started walking around the corner, and that was when she saw that both The Doctor and Donna had climbed into the cleaner's cradle, and pulled themselves down. She started rushing toward the edge of the building, but a familiar sonic noise from behind her grabbed her attention. Swirling around to face the door, she eyed it. That wasn't possible for there to be another sonic here. At that, the door swung open so Clara made a bolt for her hiding place behind the ventilation. Peeking around, she noticed the blonde haired woman come marching onto the roof, followed by two guards. The woman walks up to the edge of the building and looks down.

"Oh," she says, "Oh, I don't think so"

She points her pen at the controls, and it makes a buzzing noise as Clara notices the ropes of the cradle falling fast. She puts a hand to her mouth in a silent gasp. Oh, she hoped The Doctor was okay. The Great Intelligence was nowhere to be seen, though, so this must have happened.

"Deadlock the building" she heard the woman say.

Clara focused back on the woman, who had her pen pointed at one of the cables, which was starting to burn. Clara's heart was beating faster in her chest as she watched the events unfold. The cable eventually snaps.

"Doctor!" she heard Donna yell.

No, Clara thought, please don't tell me something has happened to him.

"Doctor!" Clara yelled, stepping out from behind the ventilation, echoing Donna's fear.

But then she realised. She turned around to notice that the woman hadn't heard her. But one of the guards did. He turned around to face her and she saw...It was The Great Intelligence. He started walking up to her as she stood in fear, glaring at him.

"Of course you'd be here" she said, a bit shakily.

"I have to ensure that both cables snap," The Great Intelligence told her, "I send The Doctor to his death and this victory is wiped from his timeline"

"But it's not just The Doctor, you'll be killing Donna too!" Clara said.

"Then it's two victories lost in one" The Great Intelligence simply said.

Clara wondered what he meant by that, but he continued on.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'll be making sure that those cables break" he stated as he turned around and walked.

Clara got a hold of herself, and marched toward The Great Intelligence.

"I won't let you!" she said.

The Great Intelligence went to grab the woman and steady her as she was cutting the other rope, but Clara grabbed him from behind, not giving him the opportunity to.

"Let go of me!" he whispered angrily.

"Never!" Clara whispered.

Clara's grasp on The Great Intelligence was causing him to stumble. He stumbled backwards into the woman, causing her to lose her grasp on her pen.

"Ow!" she said as the pen fell over the building.

The Great Intelligence knocked Clara over to the side of the ventilation, taking his position as guard back. Clara crawled back behind the ventilation as the woman turned around. Peeking under it, she saw the three pairs of feet go back inside. Getting herself up, Clara ran to the edge of the building and looked over it. She saw the cradle was dangling by a window by one rope, and there was no sign of The Doctor or Donna anywhere. She'd hoped to God they were okay and ran back inside the building after the woman and The Great Intelligence.


	3. Saving The Doctor

Clara rushed down the stairs and approached the room with all the stalls, but noticed the woman, and the two guards(or one guard and The Great Intelligence) were standing near the entrance. She ducked herself around the corner, and peeped out. She saw that The Doctor and Donna were opposite them. She gave a sigh of relief at the sight of them. They were fine. The woman was starting a conversation with The Doctor, she noticed.

'Well, then," she said, "At last"

"Hello" said The Doctor, "Nice to meet you, I'm The Doctor"

"And I'm Donna" Donna introduced herself.

"Partners in crime," said the woman, "And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology"

"Oh, yes, I've still got your sonic pen," The Doctor said, pulling it out, "Nice. I like it. Sleek. It's kind of sleek"

"Oh, it's deifnitely sleek" Donna chimed in.

"Yeah," The Doctor said, "And if you were to sign your real name, that would be..?"

"Matron Cofelia of the Five Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class" The woman introduced herself.

Wow, Clara thought, what a name.

"A wet nurse," The Doctor said, "Using humans as surrogates"

"I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding planet was lost" Matron stated.

Clara eyed the guards, making sure nothing happens. She was wondering why The Great Intelligence stayed so silent, even though he was standing right there in front of The Doctor. He could kill him right now and end the timestream if he wanted to. Why was he just standing there doing nothing?

"I hardly think you can stop bullets" Matron's voice interrupted Clara's thoughts.

The guards, including The Great Intelligence, aimed their guns at The Doctor and Donna. Now she knew why he was waiting. She had to stop him somehow. But he couldn't just walk out in plain sight, that Matron woman would have her killed on the spot. She looked around, and noticed one of those golden necklaces laying close by her feet. She bent down and picked it up, eyeing the oval at the end. She could probably aim that into the back of The Great Intelligence's gun. After all,she was ace at trashcan basketball when she was little. Untying the little oval thing from the chain, Clara aimed for The Great Intelligence's gun. But just as she was about to release the throw, The Doctor's voice stopped her. Clara gave a look at himfrom her hiding spot.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," he was saying, "One more thing, before dying. Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?"

"No" The Matron woman said.

"Nor me," The Doctor said, "Let's find out!"

And with a big grin, The Doctor pointed his screwdriver and the Matron's pen at each other, turning them on, creating a loud awful noise, shattering glass, and causing Clara, Matron, The Great Intelligence and the other guard to hold their heads in pain. Through the pain, Clara managed to take notice of which direction The Doctor and Donna ran in. She saw the Matron lady grab ahold of herself, and talk into her wrist.

"I'm advancing the birth plan," she said, "We're going into premature labor"

And with that, the three of them rushed past Clara, taking no notice of her, but causing Clara to drop the pendant. Undecided who to follow for a few seconds, she ran through the room in the direction The Doctor and Donna ran. Catching up to them, she followed them down the stairs and into thehallway the storage cupboard was in.

"Well, that's one solution, hide in a cupboard, I like it" Donna said as she followed The Doctor into the cupboard.

Clara started to go after them but all of a sudden was stopped by a forcefield. She felt the air around her, but everywhere she touched was blocked off. She huffed. The Doctor had obviously done something to stop the guards. But now she couldn't save him, because they were on opposite sides of the forcefield. She heard footsteps approaching her and swiveled around to see who it was. She had nowhere to hide this time around, so she prepared for whatever was to come. She noticed two guards were heading in her direction.

"What are you-" The first guard said, but was rendered unconscious by the second guard before he could finish his sentence.

Clara noticed the second one was The Great Intelligence, who continued walking towards her, with an evil grin.

"Can't get through," Clara told him,smiling, "Sorry"

"Preposterous!" The Great Intelligence said, pushing her out the way, continuing to walk down the hall.

Only he didn't get far, as he was stopped by the same forcefield Clara was. He felt around the air, everywhere he touched was forcefielded.

"What did you do?!" He growled, turning to Clara.

"Wasn't me," Clara shrugged, "The Doctor"

She gave a sly grin. The Great Intelligence frowned.

"Then I shall find another way!" He growled, hurriedly rushing back up the stairs.

"Not if I can help it!" Clara said, glaring at him as he left, and started rushing after him.

She followed him all the way up the stairs to the plant room, and outside on the roof. Clara stopped in her tracks, inches behind The Great Intelligence. What was outside surprised her. Even though she'd been through all these lives, she didn't remember any of the monsters she'd seen except for the ones before she jumped into the timestream. Even those ones were blurs in her mind. But what was right in front of her right now made her smile in awe. A giant spaceship was inches away from the building, and it was beaming up millions of tiny little squishy white aliens, who were waving at her. She smiled, waving back at them.

"This is perfect" The Great Intelligence said, walking up to the edge of the roof, ruining the moment, "That goes down, the Adipose don't leave Earth, people keep exploding and it's a lost victory"

He pulled out his gun, and pointed it at the giant ship. Luckily, Clara noticed this just in time. She ran toward him, and grabbed hold of The Great Intelligence's waist, causing him to stumble around a bit, gun still outstretched.

"What are you doing?" he screamed.

"Not letting you win" Clara told him firmly as they struggled, getting closer to the roof's edge.

As they got closer to the edge, squirming and struggling, Clara managed to knock his gun out of his hands, making it fall to the ground below.

"No!" The Great Intelligence yelled, grabbing Clara with as much strength as she was holding him, and turning her around so her back was just inches from falling off the building.

He grinned, knowing yet again that he had the upper hand, despite them both clinging to each other tightly. Just then, they heard the door of the roof open. Looking toward it, Clara saw The Doctor and Donna enter onto the rooftop. Donna didn't seem to notice them, she was looking at the Adipose, but Clara managed to exchange a quick glance with The Doctor.

"Run," she said to him, "Run, you clever boy. And remember me"

And with that, Clara fell backwards off the roof, pulling The Great Intelligence with her. This time around, they were both dying. Clara closed her eyes as she fell, getting ready to be pulled into the next life to save The Doctor.


End file.
